Introduction to Social

Work

SOW 1101M
Aim (s) of the course
 To provide students with basic skills in
identification of social problems and
execution of interventions
Topics of Study
a. Social work and social welfare
introduction
i. Defining social work
ii. Defining social welfare as an academic
discipline
iii. Defining Social welfare as a public welfare
program
iv. Describing the history of Social Work
practice
 American history of Social Work
 Malawian history of Social Work
a. Social work and social
welfare introduction
Vi Relationship between social work and
other disciplines in social sciences
vii. Sociology and psychology
 Economics and political science.
 Sociological concepts in social work
viii. culture, socialization, society ,family
b. Goals of social work and
Social Welfare
i. Types of social work goals
ii. Types of social welfare goals
iii. Ethical principles in social work
iv. Roles of social workers
c. Levels of social work practice

i. Micro level
ii. Mezzo
iii. Macro
d. Gender and social work

i. Gender and sex

ii. Gender roles and sex roles
iii. Gender issues in Malawi
e. Disability and social work

i. Models of disability
ii. Causes of disability in Malawi
iii. impact of disability
f. Deviance and social work

i. Crime and deviance

ii. Causes of crime and deviance in Malawi
iii. Juvenile delinquency
g. Mental health and social
work
i. Defining mental health
ii. Mental health and mental illness
iii. Causes of mental illness in Malawi
iv. Remedies to mental health
h. Family and child welfare

i. Defining family & Child welfare

ii. Family problems in Malawi
iii. Child related problems in Malawi

g. Aging process
 Population aging
Prescribed Texts

Dubois, D. 2014. Social Work: An Empowering

Profession, Newyork ,Pearson
Education
Farley,W. and Lorenzo. L. 2012. Introduction
to Social Work, 12th Ed , Newyork, Pearson &
Bacon
Zastrow, C. 2017. Social Work, An
Introduction. Newyork: Wadsworth
Recommended Texts
Cargan, L. 2007. Sociological Footprints, 10th Ed., Newyork, Wadsworth

De Lamater, J. D, 2006. Social Psychology, Newyork, Wadsworth

Haralambos M,. 2013, Sociology Themes and Perspectives 8th Ed, London,
Collins Educational,
Karen.K.Kirst-Ashman 2010,Introduction to social work and social
welfare,3rd,Nelson Education Ltd.
Burton P, Pelser E and Gondwe L, 2005, Understanding Offending, Prisoners
and Rehabilitation in Malawi, Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies

Moore, S, 2001, Sociology Alive, Stanley Thorns, Cheltenham.

Weaver, H, 2005, Exploration in Cultural Competence, New York: Thomson

Zastrow, C, 2006, Social Work with Groups,6th Ed, Newyork ,Wadsworth

Defining social work

 The National Association of Social Work

(NASW, 1973) defines social work as follows:
 Social work is the professional activity of helping
individuals, groups, or communities enhance or
restore their capacity for social functioning and
creating societal conditions favorable to this
goal.
 Social work practice consists of the professional
application of social work values, principles, and
techniques to one or more of the following ends:
Defining social work
 Helping people obtain tangible services (e.g.,
those involving provision of food, housing, or
income).
 Providing counseling and psychotherapy with
 individuals, families, and groups.
 Helping communities or groups provide or
 improve social and health services.
 Participating in relevant legislative processes.
Defining social work
 In social work, empowering people is the
process of helping individuals, families,
groups, organizations, and communities
increase their personal, interpersonal,
socioeconomic, and political strength and
influence through improving their
circumstances.
Defining social work
 Social workers seek to develop the capacity of
clients to understand their environment, make
choices, take
 responsibility for their choices, and influence their
life
 situations through organization and advocacy.
 Social workers also seek to gain a more equitable
distribution of resources and power among
different groups
 This focus on equity and social justice has been a
hallmark of the social work profession. In recent
years, social work education has had an increased
emphasis on the concept of human rights—
PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL
WORK
 These are guidelines on how social
workers operate professionally.
1. Confidentiality
 The relationship is based on trust.You
must recognize that what passes between
you and your client is confidential. Assume
that all information is given in trust, and
therefore confidential, unless permission
is given to use it in another context.
PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL
WORK
2. Individualism
The social worker should treat each client
as a unique individual ,having unique
problems, affected and respond to
personally to problems.
3. Acceptance - Recognize the worth of
the individual regardless of his/her
circumstances, status, religion, race, politics,
behavior, and wish to foster human dignity
and self-respect.
PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL
WORK
4.The client`s right to self determination
Encourage self-help as a means of growing
in self-confidence, and the ability to take on
more responsibility for one’s own affairs.
5. Being empathetic - You must be
sensitive to the client’s feelings. Put yourself
in the client’s position. It helps if you
understand your strengths and weaknesses.
If you accept yourself as you are, you may
be able to accept others
PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL
WORK
6. Genuineness - You must be genuine and
not defensive. Be open, real and honest.
Studies indicate that positive outcomes can
be achieved if the client sees in you
empathy, genuineness and a positive regard.
7. Non-judgmental attitude
8.Purposeful expression of feelings
ETHICS IN SOCIAL WORK:
 Ethics are code of conduct guiding social
workers in their practice. The following are
the ethics of a social worker:
1. Respect the dignity of the individual as the
basis for all social relationships.
2. Have faith in the capacity of the client to
advance towards his/her goals.
3. Base your relations with others on their
qualities as individuals, without distinction as
to race, creed, color, or economic or social
status
ETHICS IN SOCIAL WORK
4. Recognize that your greatest gift to another person may be to give
an opportunity for him/her to develop and exercise his/her own
capacities.
5. Do not invade the personal affairs of another individual without
his/her consent, except in an emergency, where you must act to prevent
injury to him/her or to others.
6. Believe and accept the differences and individuality of others, and
endeavor to build a useful relationship on them.
7. Base your opinion of another person on a genuine attempt to
understand the whole person, his/her situation, and what it means.
8. Constantly try to seek understanding and control yourself, your
attitudes, and the prejudices which may affect your relationships.
Concepts Related to Social
Work (Concepts used in social
work)
1. Social Service
Social service is the help given by the society
for the immediate relief of certain problems
faced by the members.
Social service is the temporary service given to
an individual or group in cash or in kind.
It is a service given by a volunteer to a needy
man. It does not help a person to help himself.
Social service has the following
characteristics
1. It is as a temporary assistance.
2. It is a voluntary service.
3. It is a charity work.
4. No need of specialized training.
5. No remuneration.
6. It can be practiced by any individual
Social Reform
 Social reforms is a general term that is used to describe
movements organized by the members of a community who
aim to create change in their society.
 These changes often relate to justice and ways that a society
is currently relying on injustice for a certain groups in order
to function.
 Social reform is a process to make changes or improvements
in the society.
 Social reform involves "deliberate attempt to bring about
change in social attitudes, social values and social
institutions."
 This can be achieved through the process of persuasion and
public education.
 Various social evils like untouchability, child marriage, sati
etc. were prevalent in our society.
Social Security
 Social security is the protection given to its
members by the society against certain risks
that may occur at any stage in life.
 It is a program of protection against the
contingencies of modern life namely
sickness, unemployment, old age,
dependency, etc.
 According to International Labor
Organization (ILO) "social security is the
security that society furnishes, through
appropriate organizations, against certain
risks to which its members are exposed"
TYPES OF SOCIAL
SECURITY
1.Social assistance
 It is the financial aid given by the government to
individuals and families in their contingencies.
 Here contribution from the person is not at all
needed to receive assistance.
2.Social insurance
 Social insurance helps a person financially when
he meets with some risks in life.
 The insured person has to contribute a particular
amount regularly to get financial assistance under
this scheme
Social Justice
 Social justice demands equal opportunity
and access to resource irrespective of age,
religion, sex and other socio-economic
conditions.
 It requires fair treatment of all in
education, employment, governance, and
other welfare measures
Social Health
 The term social health generally refers to social
interactions which promotes social functioning
and adjustment.
 It refers to the capacity of an individual to relate
with one another.
 It manifests in how the members of the society
are treated by others and how they behave
towards each other.
 Social health has great importance with regard to
individual's health.
 Social health often deals with how an individual
is able to socialize with other people and form
relationships.
Social Legislation
 The term social legislation refers to a body of
rules enacted by a recognized body and operated
by a community as binding upon itself.
Objectives of Social Legislation
❖ promote harmony in a community.
❖ uphold rights and protect people from injustice.
❖ ensure the security of the society.
❖ improve social and economic condition.
❖ address grievances.
❖ bring social order through social control.
Social Welfare
 The term social welfare signifies the total well-
being of the individual and the community.
 'Social welfare' is an organized system of social
services designed to aid individuals and groups to
attain satisfying standards of life and health.
 Social workers facilitate linkage between social
welfare schemes and their clients.
 According to National Association of Social Work
(NASW), social welfare is a nation's system of
programs, benefits and services that help people
to meet those social, economic, educational and
health needs.
OBJECTIVES OF SOCIAL
WELFARE
 The objective of social welfare is to provide each
individual with the basic economic necessities,
high standard of’ health, decent living conditions,
equal opportunities, the well-being of deprived
persons.
 Social welfare is desired, planned and organized
life. It makes individuals more productive
members of the society.
 It minimizes social unrest. Social welfare denotes
the full range of organized activities some of
which are private, public that seeks to prevent or
alleviate or contribute to the solution of
recognized social problems.
OBJECTIVES
 It is meant to improve the wellbeing of
individuals, groups or communities.
 The idea of social welfare is based on the
assumption that human society can be
organized and governed to produce and
provide the needs of different individuals
in the society.
 Social welfare literally means social
wellbeing. It refers to institutional
programs for the needy.
EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL WELFARE
PROGRAMS INCLUDE
 To counsel individuals and groups experiencing a
wide variety of personal and social difficulties.
 medical and legal services,
 Family planning services,
 nursing homes, shelters for battered spouses,
shelters for street children,
 services for child abuse and neglect,
 training programs for alcoholics,
 services for the disabled,
 To meet the financial needs of the poor
 To end all types of discrimination and oppression.
DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL
WORK AS AN ACADEMIC
DISCIPLINE
OUR FOCUS WILL BE ON
 UNITED KINGDOM
 UNITED STATES
 MALAWI
THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL WORK IN
THE UNITED KINGDOM
Early European History
 All societies must develop ways to meet the needs of
those who are unable to be self-sufficient for example
orphaned, the blind, persons with a physical or mental
disability, the poor, and the sick.
 Before the Industrial Revolution, this responsibility
was met largely by the family, by the church, and by
neighbors.
 An important value of the Judeo-Christian tradition
throughout history and one that has considerable
relevancy for social welfare is humanitarianism:
ascribing a high value to human life and benevolently
helping those in need.
THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL WORK IN
THE UNITED KINGDOM
 With the development of the feudal
system in Europe, when a tenant family
was unable to meet a relative’s basic
needs, the feudal lord usually provided
whatever was necessary.
THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL
WORK IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

 The need to help other people is stressed by

the major religions.
 During the Elizabethan period the needy
people were helped by the authorities.
 Such charity works are called 'relief of the
paupers'.
 The Victorian reformers who were distressed
by poverty, child neglect and other social ills
were pioneers in many of today's social
welfare services,
PHASES OF HISTORY OF SOCIAL
WORK IN UNITED KINGDOM
 The history of social work in the UK had gone
through various phases. They include the
following.
 A A.D 1200 to 1500
 From the beginning of religion the priests
assumed leadership in providing protection for the
helpless widows, orphans and the sick.
 Charity was promoted primarily by the desire to
receive the grace of God to secure the merits of
good deeds for eternal life.
 In the beginning of the14th century the poor were
divided into two categories; able-bodied and
destitute.
B. A.D 1501 to 1600
 Citizens were discouraged from giving alms to the able-
bodied beggars.
 In 1531 Henry VI issued license for begging in restricted
areas; punishment was given to those who violated the law
 In1572, Queen Elizabeth introduced general tax for the
protection of the poor and appointed overseers of the poor.
Thus the government was held responsible for the
maintenance of the poor.
 The church, especially monasteries played the role of relief
centers to the destitute and the disabled.
 Alms were collected and distributed by the parish and other
clergymen who knew the individual and his situation.
 Later the responsibility was shifted from the church to the
Government.
C. A.D 1600 to 1800
The Elizabethan Poor Law
 To attempt to solve this social problem, England
passed several Poor Laws between the mid-1300s
and the mid-1800s.
 The most significant of these was the Elizabethan
Poor Law of 1601, enacted during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I.
 Former approaches, primarily through the church
and the family, were unsuccessful at meeting the
needs of many who were unable to be self-
sufficient.
 As a result, many of these individuals were forced
to resort to begging.
 The Elizabethan Poor Law
 It is interesting to observe that the social
problem that these Poor Laws were
designed to alleviate was conceptualized not
as poverty but, rather, as the ruling class’s
annoyance with begging.
The Elizabethan Poor Law
 The Elizabethan Poor Law established
three categories of relief recipients:
 1. The able-bodied poor. This group was
given low grade employment, and citizens
were prohibited from offering them
financial help.
 Anyone who refused to work was placed
in stocks or in jail.
The Elizabethan Poor Law
 2. The impotent poor. This group was
composed of people unable to work—the elderly,
the blind, the deaf, mothers with young children,
and those with a physical or mental disability.
 They were usually placed together in an
almshouse (institution).
 If the impotent poor had a place to live and if it
appeared less expensive to maintain them there,
they were permitted to live outside the
almshouse, where they were granted “outdoor
relief,” usually “in kind” (food, clothing, and fuel).
 The Elizabethan Poor Law
 3. Dependent children. Children whose
parents or grandparents were unable to
support them were apprenticed out to
other citizens. Boys were taught the trade
of their master and had to serve until
their 24th birthday.
 Girls were brought up as domestic
servants and were required to remain
until they were 21 or married.
The Industrial Revolution
 In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the Industrial
Revolution flourished in Europe and America.
 The industrial Revolution was the transition to new
manufacturing processes in Europe and United States.
 The development of trade and the rise of business
were among the major causes of the industrial
Revolution.
 But the revolution was also made possible by the
Protestant ethic and the laissez-faire
economic view. These two themes also had
important effects on social welfare. The Protestant
ethic emphasized individualism, the view that one is
master of one’s own fate.
The Industrial Revolution
 Hard work and self ambition were highly
valued.
 An overriding goal for human beings set
by the Protestant ethic was to acquire
material goods.
 People were largely judged not on the
basis of their personalities and other
attributes but on how much wealth they
had acquired. To be poor was thought to
be one’s own moral fault.
The Industrial Revolution
 The laissez-faire economic theory
asserted that the economy and society in
general would best prosper if businesses
and industries were permitted to do
whatever they desired to make a profit.
 Any government regulation of business
practices (for example, setting safety
standards, passing minimum-wage laws,
prohibiting child labor) was discouraged.
The Industrial Revolution
 The social welfare implications of the
Protestant ethic reached their most
inhumane level in the theory of social
Darwinism, which was based on Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution.
 Darwin theorized that higher forms of the
life evolved from lower forms by the process
of survival of the fittest; he had seen in the
animal world a fierce struggle for survival
that destroyed the weak, rewarded the
strong, and produced evolutionary change.

The Industrial Revolution
 Herbert Spencer extended this theory to
humanity: Struggle, destruction, and survival
of the fit were thought to be essential to
progress in human society as well.
 The theory stated in its most inhumane
form that the strong (the wealthy)
 survived because they were superior,
whereas the weak (the needy) deserved to
perish; it would be a mistake to help the
weak survive.
 D A.D.1800 to 1900
 Criticism of the Poor Law Legislation
 Wage subsidy induced labourers to idleness
 Encouraged the poor to have more children in order to
receive extra relief
 The working poor would lose any motivation to improve
their position while ‘generous’ relief was provided
 The law was discriminatory, categorized as either deserving
or undeserving poor
 The Poor Law no longer able to meet the demands of
nineteenth-century Britain.
 dual processes of industrialization and urban development
were attracting new populations to towns in search of work
The 1834 Amendment Act
 Before 1834, the cost of looking after the
poor was growing more expensive every
year.
 This cost was paid for by the middle and
upper classes in each town through their
local taxes.
 There was a real suspicion amongst the
middle and upper classes that they were
paying the poor to be lazy and avoid
work.
The 1834 Amendment Act
 After years of complaint, a new Poor Law was
introduced in 1834.
 The new Poor Law was meant to reduce the cost
of looking after the poor and impose a system
which would be the same all over the country.
 Under the new Poor Law, parishes were grouped
into unions and each union had to build a
workhouse if they did not already have one.
 Except in special circumstances, poor people
could now only get help if they were prepared to
leave their homes and go into a workhouse.
The 1834 Amendment Act
 Conditions inside the workhouse were
deliberately harsh, so that only those who
desperately needed help would ask for it. Families
were split up and housed in different parts of the
workhouse.
 The poor were made to wear a uniform and the
diet was monotonous. There were also strict
rules and regulations to follow.
 Inmates, male and female, young and old were
made to work hard, often doing unpleasant jobs
such as picking oakum or breaking stones.
Children could also find themselves hired out to
work in factories or mines.
The 1834 Amendment Act
 Although most people did not have to go
to the workhouse, it was always
threatening if a worker became
unemployed, sick or old.
 Increasingly, workhouses contained only
orphans, the old, the sick and the insane.
Not surprisingly the new Poor Law was
very unpopular. It seemed to punish
people who were poor through no fault
of their own.
The 1834 Amendment Act
 However, not all Victorians shared this
point of view. Some people, such as
Richard Oastler, spoke out against the
new Poor Law, calling the workhouses
‘Prisons for the Poor’.
 The poor themselves hated and feared
the threat of the workhouse so much that
there were riots in northern towns.
Formation of Charity
Organization Societies
 The formation of charity organization society was an
important milestone in the development of charity
programs.
 London Charity Organization Society was the first
such organization formed in the year 1869.
 They undertook the following strategies to help the
needy effectively.
 I. stopped giving doles.
 ii. Coordinated the distribution of relief.
 iii. Verified each application carefully.
 iv. Conducted interviews to assess the genuineness of
the applicants.
 V. formulated plans for the treatments.
Settlement House Movement
Cannon Samuel Augustus Barnet founded
University Settlement House which was named
as Toynbee Hall.
Its objectives were:
 i. Educational and cultural development of
the poor.
 ii. Imparting information to the poor for their
improvement.
 iii. Developing consciousness towards health
problems and the need for enacting
legislation.
E. A.D 1900 onwards
 Newly formed Charity Organization
Societies (COS) started to practice
professional social work and began to
provide training to social workers.
 In the year 1899 Social work training was
started and introduced.
 At first two years training programme in
social work with theory and practice was
started.
 The table below shows the important
legislations enacted to standardize the social
welfare schemes of UK.
The table below shows the important
legislations enacted to standardize the
social welfare schemes
of UK.
YEAR LAW PURPOSE
1905 Poor Law Pensions for the aged and
Commission unemployed, Public employment
services.
1906 Meals Act Providing free meals
1907 Education Free medical examination of school
Act children.
1911 National Compulsory health insurance to the
Insurance Act workers who belong to the lower income
groups

1925 Old Age Old age pension

1941 Beverridge Social Insurance, Public assistance,
Commission Children's allowance etc.

1944 Disabled Employ the disabled persons in

Persons commercial or industrial
(Employment) enterprises.
Act